Mollie Florkey

State of Ohio

Mother of Member Jane Branson

My Mother, Mollie Florkey was forced in the Heartland nursing home in Hillsboro, Ohio in June 2007, by her court appointed guardian/son “Without” court order or medical necessity. There is evidence the POA that nominated the son guardian is void and nullified.

Since Mollie Florkey has been held prisoner at the Heartland nursing home, the guardian has allowed Mollie to endure years of emotional and physical abuse. The guardian has isolated Mollie Florkey Without a Court Order from family, friends and spiritual associations to stop them from reporting Mollie’s abuse and advocating Mollie’s Rights.

The Probate Court ignores all reports, motions filed, and evidence of Mollie Florkey’s abuse by the guardian. In the mean time Mollie’s abuse continues while the court allows the guardian to get away with his crimes.

It is the Responsibility and “Duty” of the Probate Court as the Superior Guardian to Protect their Elderly Ward. The question is, “WHY” is the court not doing their duty ?

A Hillsboro woman is suing her brother, her mother’s lawyer, Highland County Probate Judge Kevin Greer, and even Ohio Gov. John Kasich over issues involving the legal guardianship of her mother.

Jane Branson of Harry Sauner Road filed the suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for southern Ohio. Representing herself, Branson claims in her suit that her mother, Mollie Florkey, should be released from a nursing home in which she was placed, and also claims she has been denied proper access to Ohio’s courts.

But records show she has long been involved in court in regard to a disagreement among her siblings over the guardianship and care of her mother. Records show that in 2002, Molly Florkey filed both a Living Will and a durable power of attorney form expressing her desire that her son, James Malott, be designated her guardian should she become incapacitated.

Those documents also reflect her desire to have another daughter, Helen Olberg, designated her guardian in the event her son was unable or unwilling to perform the duties.

In 2007, Malott and Branson both filed documents in court seeking to be named guardian of their mother. Greer, guided by Florkey’s living will and power of attorney forms, ruled in favor of Malott’s petition.

Since then, Branson has attempted to overturn Greer’s decision, as well as asking Greer to remove himself from the case, which he refused to do. She has also petitioned the Ohio Supreme Court several times to have Greer removed from the case. The court has turned down her request each time, most recently admonishing her not to file any additional requests on that subject.

In her suit, Branson claims she has been denied the ability to exhaust her access to the courts, and demands that her mother “be released (from a nursing home) and restored of her liberty, and, for all just and proper relief deemed appropriate by this court and under the facts and circumstances presented.”

Greer declined to discuss the merits of the case, but did say it was the first time in a 31-year career he had been sued.

Also named in the suit is Hillsboro attorney J.D. Wagoner, who is Florkey’s attorney. Wagoner said he was unable to comment at this time, and Malott’s attorney, William Peele of Wilmington, did not return a request for comment.

A call to a number for Branson included with her lawsuit was not answered.

Brandy Chandler
Managing Editor and Editor of online content creation and development

A Highland County woman has filed a case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against a local judge, local attorney, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, regarding the legal guardianship of an elderly area resident.

The case is being brought by Jane Branson, written on behalf of her 93-year-old mother, who is “an adult ward under court-appointed guardianship.” Branson – who is not the guardian – is acting as her own attorney (pro se) in the suit.

Highland County Juvenile and Probate Court Judge Kevin Greer brought the suit to the attention of local news media on Friday and provided copies of court documents. Greer, Hillsboro Attorney J.D. Wagoner, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and James Malott – the court-appointed legal guardian of the 93-year-old – are named as defendants in the case.

Wagoner is the 93-year-old woman’s guardian ad litem, according to the court documents.

The suit does not expressly state how Kasich is involved in the matter.

According to Greer, Branson has previously filed an appeal with Ohio’s Fourth District Court of Appeals, and filed on four separate occasions to have the matter heard before the Supreme Court of Ohio and was denied each time.

Greer said that the situation began with a 2007 case in Highland County Probate Court when he presided over a case to determine guardianship for the elderly woman. Branson had filed an application to be appointed guardian of the woman’s estate and person, which was denied. Branson made the appeal to Ohio’s Fourth District Court of Appeals, which upheld Greer’s decision.

According to the 2008 judgment from the court of appeals, Branson and Malott are two of the elderly woman’s four children. Malott is her power of attorney, and according to documents she filed with the Highland County Recorder’s Office, “In the event that [it] should become necessary for a guardianship of my person and or my estate, I request that the probate court appoint my attorney in fact, James D. Malott, as such guardian, without bond.” The court upheld Greer’s decision to appoint Malott, stating that under the Ohio Revised Code, because a guardian had been named in the power of attorney, the court had to appoint the person nominated (Malott) as long as he was competent, suitable and willing to accept the appointment.

“The court (Greer) was required to appoint Malott, absent a showing of incompetence, unsuitability, or unwillingness to accept the appointment,” the court of appeals wrote.”

Branson claimed in the appeal that she was more qualified to care for the woman, and that she had been caring for her for four years. “In Branson’s lay opinion, (the woman) was not getting appropriate care at the nursing facility (where she is now living).”

Malott testified, the court said, that the woman was “getting appropriate care at the facility.”

In the case filed with the federal court, Branson alleges that the 93-year-old, who she says suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, was “granny-napped” when she was placed in a nursing home by her court-appointed guardian, that she does not receive adequate care, and that she is “forcibly” kept from friends and family members.

Branson alleges that the elderly woman has been “unlawfully deprived, denied and restrained of her liberty;” denied due process; denied her right to appear in Ohio state courts; denied legal counsel; denied access to Ohio courts; and denied a right to a review or appeal process.

Among the prayers for relief requested in the suit, Branson asks for “an award of compensatory damages in an amount yet to be determined, an award of punitive damages where appropriate and in a sum sufficient to deter future like conduct by defendants,” and for attorney fees, costs and litigation expenses.

Over four years Mollie Florkey, a ward of the state, has been held prisoner at the Heartland nursing facility in Hillsboro Ohio by her guardian “without” medical necessity.

Mollie Florkey has filed a law suit against her guardian.

Mollie has challenged the validity of the POA that nominated the son guardian.

Mollie’s daughter, Jane Branson, has pursued the cause as next best friend on behalf of her incapacitated Mother.
The case is now in the Court Of Appeals in Chillicothe Ohio.

The guardianship is a matter of public record.

Two Appeals have been filed, one in Probate Court, the 2nd one in the Court of Common Pleas.

The guardian has, upon his own choosing and absent authorization of the guardianship court, confined Mollie in a nursing facility against her will, absent medical necessity in an environment which is not representative of a “least restrictive environment” and, that while so confined, the guardian is intentionally, willfully and deliberately, depriving Mollie of her 1st Amendment Rights of free association and Mollie’s 14th Amendment right of Family unity with her eldest and youngest daughters, their families and religious liberty.

The guardian has intentionally inflicted on Mollie emotional distress and clearly is depriving Mollie of her rights under Title II of the American’s with Disabilities Act.

For over four years the guardian continues to demand that the nursing home withhold visits from Mollie, preventing Mollie associating freely with family members and friends.

The guardian uses and misuses his position as a law enforcement officer to coerce compliance with his personal wishes and desires all the while ignoring completely the wishes, preferences and desires of Mollie Florkey.

The guardian has breached his fiduciary duty owed to Mollie and violated his position of trust, fidelity and honest dealing, instead, using his DPOAHC/ authority to isolate, confine and deprive Mollie of her liberty, and her fundamental rights of association, privacy and personal autonomy.

Through no fault of Mollie Florkey, the guardian has forced our OHIO Taxpayers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in state Medicare and Medicaid funding, when Mollie instead, could be in a “Least Restrictive Environment.”

Mollie Florkey went in the Heartland nursing facility for respite stay only until her daughter/caregiver recovered from a minor surgery but once the daughter recovered instead of Mollie returning home Mollie’s nightmare of negligence, abuse and isolation began and has lasted over four years.

Mollie wants to return home to live with her daughter, there is no reason why she should remain in a institution without medical necessity, when there is family willing and able to care for her at home in a “least restrictive environment,” $aving our taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[H]ow many Mollie Florkey’s are in Ohio Nursing Homes at taxpayer expense that need not be there ???

“In some ways you live by the sword, you die by the sword,” said Robert Applebaum, director of the Ohio Long-Term Care Research Project at Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center.

“There are only two states where the reimbursement formula is in state law, and Ohio is one of them. In the past, that has served nursing homes well because they have done better than other Medicaid providers. …

But when budgets are tight, it can have a very negative impact.”

Funding for Ohio nursing homes has been relatively flat in recent years, but it was never cut like it was in this budget.

Facing an $8 billion budget shortfall, Kasich sought to limit special-interest influence, including from nursing homes. He pushed to serve more seniors through home- and community- based services, which are more popular with the elderly and $AVE TAX DOLLARS..

Under the compromise that emerged from the legislature this week, the average daily rate the state pays nursing homes will drop to $167.25 per patient this year, down from the $177.53 that homes currently are paid to care for nearly 54,000 Medicaid-eligible Ohioans.
Next year, the rate will bump up to $168.84 for homes meeting quality benchmarks that will be established by state officials in the coming months.

They are likely to include such measures as staffing levels and patient satisfaction.

Nursing homes that fail to meet the goals will be paid $152.40.

The budget also requires that a greater share – 61 percent – of payments to nursing homes be spent on direct care, a jump of 9 percent.

And to address concerns about nursing homes filling their beds with people who shouldn’t be there – the mentally ill, sex offenders and others – the budget sets a fixed rate of $130 a day for those with few, if any, ailments.

Greg Moody, director of Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation, said the budget increases total Medicaid spending on long-term care by $166 million over the next two years, but most of the additional dollars are going to home and community – based services.. Spending on the popular PASSPORT home-care program will jump $55.6 million.

“This should accelerate the progress (the state has made) to rebalance the long-term-care budget,” he said. “It was our No. 1 budget directive.”

Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, said the cuts will force nursing homes to reduce staff, and some could close.

“Where people will start to notice it is in pure staff,” he said.

“That is where most of our cost is. The only way to make reductions in costs that great is to take it out of staffs.”

Kasich and past governors have sought to better balance long-term-care spending because states that devote more to home- and community-based care and less to institutional care spend less per person.